Oceanracing - 2006 - Asia Records

Asian Record Circuit 2006 - Leg 8
www.teamellen.com - Übersicht Leg 8

Wednesday, 3 May 2006 at 09:46
TACKING FEST THROUGH THE NIGHT
Shields up...engage the force field, etc, is a regular phrase in si-fi movies - we have our own before going on deck - and it takes a bit longer - sun protection factor 50! It also seems to make everything just a little more slipery. But the sun is now so strong in the day that it's impossible to step outside with some level of shield engaged. Even those most sun tolerant amongst us are having to pile it on.

We are on our 7th tack since Sanya, and 6th in the last 10 hours, yup, we are upwind - though we wind is a fairly healthy 10-12 kts so can't really complain - each time we step off the coast (heading a bit more eastish) we get a header that means tacking back to go south to where our Veitnam line is. Getting south is also important as the further south we go - the more east the wind will be and the better able we are to make our course. We have 175nm to go to the gate [0800 GMT] - which could be in 24 hrs if the wind helps a little. After that we have 350nm of the southern coast of this peninsular and another 175nm after that across to the Malaysian coast. It's important to break this down into stages, and to sail each stage as it comes - what happens on each leg does have a bearing on the next - but it's nothing we can control, just getting to each point as fast as possible is important - unlike other legs we are not rushing to beat a storm, we are in a hurry to beat what looks like a massive calm patch in the last 200nm - that is still 5 days away so it's surely going to change - but it does focus your mind through each tack - which you will remember is a little more difficult than in the past due to the loss of the use of our grinding pedestal.

Last night was again filled with the strobe lights of fishing nets - we are getting more used to them now - understanding a little how they are laid, and how best to deal with them. Our best stratergy is to spot them early - decide early which way we are going to go around them, and make a big course change - either tack, or big bear away, we managed to keep them at a safe distance last night. This morning however it was a bit different, we had a fishing boat working across our track, and looked to be laying a net... We wiggled a bit and decided that it was ok, as his floating posts were quite a long way off, however, we suddenly saw the tiny white floats of the net, and had to return to our approach to Shanghai net stratergy...sail on....and we did. The net seems to roll down the daggerboard, off the tip, and before it has chance to snag the rudders we are past it. This SHANGHAI tactic is not one we choose to employ - but does give us a little confidence should we fail to spot a net.

So life goes on - once again in rough 3 hour time slots - it seems to pass rather quickly infact, as when not on deck we are doing little jobs around the boat, eating, sleeping, avoiding the sun, rehydrating etc, looking at the chart, looking at the sat pics (had a few crackers) chatting about sailing past and future - life is good!
Later, Charlie and the B&Q crew